January 31, 2007 – Qimonda AG is evaluating various locations across Asia for a proposed 300mm wafer fab, including Taiwan, Singapore, and mainland China, which would expand the company’s operations outside Europe and the US, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

Citing comments by Daniel Wong, president for Qimonda’s Asia-Pacific operation, the paper noted that the company will pay close attention to any government incentives and talent recruitment capabilities among prospective sites. The paper also cited “Taiwan industry watchers” believing Taiwan is at the top of the list due to its 300mm fab cluster, although land costs are more expensive than both Singapore and mainland China.

Wang indicated that Qimonda is utilizing 60% of its in-house production capacity this year, with another 30% reserved for partner Inotera Memories Inc. and the remaining 10% for contract suppliers including Winbond Electronics Corp. Inotera has licensed Qimonda’s 75nm process technologies, while Winbond is working with 80nm processes.

Wang also noted that the company’s US facility would boost capacity by 25% this year to 30,000 wafers/month.